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Frankie

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I do a lot of long haul travel and until now I've had no problem with my baggage - never missing, not even late.

I checked my baggage in at PE all the way through to Louisville KY, and when I arrived at Atlanta our (wife and I) three checked-in bags were missing.
We were told to go onto our final destination, Louisville, and make the lost baggage claim there - when we got there and reported it I was relieved to hear the guy tell me that the bags were located in JNB and would be delivered to my hotel the next day, but when I called the next day I was told that they had not yet located the bags.

Now because I spend a long time abroad it's not just a few odd things in my bags that you'd expect for a months holiday - my computer stuff and DSLR stuff was all hand carry, but of course I have to check-in a good deal of valuables.
This is the third day and still no word on where these bags are.

NOW all you guys that travel, if you are checking in valuables you need to declare this because if you don't you'll have to accept the very low maximum amount that they pay - in my case Delta only pay $640 per bag max.

I called SAA in JNB this morning - they were aware of the claim, but did not know where the bags were - after 7 days they declare it missing and the claim process starts which takes another 21 days.

Anyone have contacts in SAA for following up on missing bags?

I have avoided travel with SAA totally for 18 months now and this happens the first time I use them.
 
Sorry to hear about that - I think now that I have I'm only going to re-check my bags in for each leg of my next trip. It's a bit of a pain but probably worth the effort (and I'll be looking into travel insurance).

Keep hassling the airline there in the US and good luck!
 
supersunbird said:
And in the future please continue to avoid...
Click to expand...

bwana said:
Sorry to hear about that - I think now that I have I'm only going to re-check my bags in for each leg of my next trip. It's a bit of a pain but probably worth the effort (and I'll be looking into travel insurance).

Keep hassling the airline there in the US and good luck!
Click to expand...


Stokstert said:
You have to only check it on the first leg, that is... out of SA or the last leg...the connecting flight from OR to PLZ.
Click to expand...
I have most often checked it in at PLZ tagged all the way to my final destination, which in this case it was tagged all the way to Louisville, but requiring that it be collected from the carousel in Atlanta, clear customs, then put it back in the system with the original tag for the domestic flight to SDF, which is what I've done in the past (BA/Comair for the PLZ-JNB).

I've just received word from Delta that two of the three are now confirmed in the possession of SAA JNB and they are searching for the third.

It's starting to look better, but NEVER again will I travel with SAA.
My company no longer gets quotes that include SAA, but this one was the exception. The ticket for the whole journey was bought from Delta.

I've decided it's best to check them from PLZ to JNB and then check them in again in JNB for the onward international section, because this way you will have early warning of mishandling or pilfering within SA, where it's more likely to happen.

If you take a look at what the airlines pay out in the event of total loss, you'll agree that additional insurance is a must if you have valuables checked-in.
In my case our companies travel agent provides full cover for loss, but I was foolish enough to put two USB hard drives and a TViX 6500A which contain personal info which cannot be replaced, and I just hate the idea of strangers accessing that.

Just be a little less complacent as I have become with checked in goods.
 
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Stokstert said:
You have to only check it on the first leg, that is... out of SA or the last leg...the connecting flight from OR to PLZ.
Click to expand...
Actually it depends on the airlines in question - some wont hand it off in jnb to a 'competitor'.

Frankie said:
In my case our companies travel agent provides full cover for loss, but I was foolish enough to put two USB hard drives and a TViX 6500A which contain personal info which cannot be replaced, and I just hate the idea of strangers accessing that.

Just be a little less complacent as I have become with checked in goods.
Click to expand...
Ouch - I'm surprised though you were willing to take the risk of the drives being damaged by rough handling. Hope they're at least in the bags that have been found!
 
Got two of the three cases, and the two with the most costly/valuable items inside.

These two bags had frequent flier program tags attached with my name and contact details, whereas the still missing one had no such tags.

The bags had an SAA hand written notice stating "Tagless", so possibly PLZ didn't attach the bar-coded strip tags ?

Today I submitted my claim for the missing bag and it's contents, and for the seven days out of pocket expenses.

Edit: I am pleased to report that there was no signs of attempted pilfering with these two bags.
 
I fail to see the merit of re-checking the bags on each leg. If your bag get lost, do you feel better if you know on what leg it went missing? No. If the airline gets a report that a bag has gone missing on "their" (as opposed to over a few legs) do they look harder. No.

Do you feel better dragging your bags from one end of the airport to another, standing in line and rechecking them each leg? Definitely not!

I take the point that you need to be think carefully about what you put in your checked bags. But there is only so much you can take into the cabin.

I hate flying. I have had enough. These days it is just too terrible. Long lines, security checks, small uncomfortable seats in economy. I mean is there a more uncomfortable seat than on an airbus? But I am also giving SAA a miss. Last time the plane was falling apart. Well, at least, in the area of my seat. Service was almost non existent. Next time to the US, it will be Delta,
 
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I honestly don't know what the point is of putting tags on bags. Four of my bags got lost last year when travelling with Emirates with my wife. I ended up going through the lost baggage warehouse myself and finding them in Dubai (I was lucky enough to be returning on the same route). They had my bags with email address on the tags (I'm not so big on giving my mobile number to Nigerian drug lords!).

You'd think it would be logical to say "hey, who do these belong to? Oh look, let's contact this guy on the tag"...
 
I've finally received payment for my missing suite-case and its contents - ASA, the small airline on the last leg of the journey paid out the bulk and my companies insurance made up the shortfall.

I hope to track down this missing bag when I next go through JNB, but could anyone tell me how long they keep the lost baggage, and where at JNB they keep this.
I'll be travelling through there six months after the loss.
 
Frankie said:
I've finally received payment for my missing suite-case and its contents - ASA, the small airline on the last leg of the journey paid out the bulk and my companies insurance made up the shortfall.

I hope to track down this missing bag when I next go through JNB, but could anyone tell me how long they keep the lost baggage, and where at JNB they keep this.
I'll be travelling through there six months after the loss.
Click to expand...

I remember seeing a storage room on the fourth floor of the domestic terminal, that seemed to have lost baggage in it. But that was SAA, so I would recommend contacting them, will have to find out who to contact there.... there is a Lost Baggage link on the FlySAA website to track your lost luggage, but you need a reference no. and surname, maybe this will help. It won't link directly, so you will have to go via flysaa.com.

B
 
Once you've been paid out a settlement and accepted it, your bag, when found "belongs" to the insurers and they just send it to Scottsboro, Alabama.
There is no law governing what should happen to lost luggage so the norm is that the Airlines collectively auction everything off. See how it works.

http://www.freeenterpriseland.com/BOOK/LOSTLUGGAGE.html

Of course that was for flights in the USA (and into the USA) and other countries have similiar mechanisms for disposal. Here we are blessed by a less transparent means, the bags seldom go missing for long, but the contents are magically cherry picked from within.

Look what happens to luggage lost by British Airways. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1559411/For-sale-at-auction-your-lost-luggage.html

There are never any guarantees, but when I travel on multi legs, requiring changes of airlines and flights, where possible without having to clear immigrations, I will check in luggage at each stop rather than check it "all the way through"
A schlep to be sure, but the risk lessens somewhat, of bags going AWOL.
 
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Hosehead said:
Once you've been paid out a settlement and accepted it, your bag, when found "belongs" to the insurers and they just send it to Scottsboro, Alabama.
There is no law governing what should happen to lost luggage so the norm is that the Airlines collectively auction everything off. See how it works.

http://www.freeenterpriseland.com/BOOK/LOSTLUGGAGE.html

Of course that was for flights in the USA (and into the USA) and other countries have similiar mechanisms for disposal. Here we are blessed by a less transparent means, the bags seldom go missing for long, but the contents are magically cherry picked from within.

Look what happens to luggage lost by British Airways. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1559411/For-sale-at-auction-your-lost-luggage.html

There are never any guarantees, but when I travel on multi legs, requiring changes of airlines and flights, where possible without having to clear immigrations, I will check in luggage at each stop rather than check it "all the way through"
A schlep to be sure, but the risk lessens somewhat, of bags going AWOL.
Click to expand...
My bags were with SAA and I expect that the one that's still missing is with them now.

There's a good few things that the fine print that the insurance does not cover, such as my CD wallet with software, and I would like to recover this.
I spoke to Delta in the US and they said that if I managed to find the bag I could negotiate with them, but off the record she said that they would usually just hand the bag over and call it quits.
 
Update

Although my claim has been fully settled , (part paid by ASA, and the remainder by my company's insurance) , on my way through JNB (6.5 months later), I asked at the SAA baggage desk and they confirm that the bags are "disposed of" after three months, so no chance of recovering the items that were not covered by insurance, such as software etc.

I wonder how they "dispose" of these bags - my guess is that someone in SAA baggage handling got lucky.
 
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